James A. Banks

James A. Banks (born 1941) holds the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies and is Founding and current Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was the Russell F. Stark University Professor at the University of Washington from 2001 to 2006. He has written or edited 20 books in multicultural education and in social studies education. Professor Banks was president of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) in 1982 and president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 1997–1998. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. A former elementary school teacher, Professor Banks received his Bachelor's degree in elementary education and social science from Chicago State University and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in these fields from Michigan State University.